= reason for low gpa/rank, but basically I was really sick my junior year and went from november to april doing virtually no homework. plus my school has a severe grading policy and most higher ranked students have taken easy/easier courses.

this year when i went to get my cross country physical (<3 running, hope to walk on in college) they found that I had a huge tumor in my stomach, so i missed like 5 weeks. it was totally unrelated to the previous illness. some of my semester grades are going to be lower than they should due to teachers who aren't superunderstanding and won't let me make up participation points, etc.

ACT: 35

SAT: 790 CR/720 M/760 writing, 8 essay
took again while out of town on college visits. bad plan.
760 CR/660 M (ew.)/760 W, 9 essay

SAT II: took in may of junior year, when i was just starting to feel better
800 lit, 760 US, 610 chem haha

I'm taking physics, math II, and spanish in january, though not all of my schools will consider those scores. Unless something goes severely wrong, I should do well on all of them.

FBLA (10-12):
- historian last year, VP this year
- on a national committee
- placed twice at nationals (6th in parliamentary procedures, 8th in entrepreneurship), three times at state, four times at regionals

Soccer (9-11):
- JV for three years (stupid political stuff. I played for the wrong club. I'm still mad about that)
- club soccer since I was 8, quit junior year due to illness/burnout

Lacrosse(9-10, 12):
- varsity for three years, did not play junior year

I think you will get into some of these. I would also have your guidance counselor talk about the illnesses when he/she completes the required forms for each school. Two other schools you may want to look at are George Washington and Wake Forest. Glad your feeling better. Best of luck!

Explain why you are cursed with sickness in your essay and hope for a sympathy factor. I can tell you Princeton is near impossible to get into, Yale, Penn, and Darmouth are reaches. Stanford is probably a low reach. But then again if I had SAT scores like you I wouldn't have to worry about the whole admissions process.

some additional info about my school (aka I'm bumping this because I'm lame):

counselors: "go to the university of louisville, it's a top 25 school. if not, you'll be fine at UK. it's top 50."

last year had several people into harvard, yale, princeton, penn, and duke. one into pomona.

two girls got into stanford but went to princeton instead.. would the fact that they were rude and didn't even tell stanford that they were turning down the offer give stanford a grudge against my school?

Nobody can chance you for most of these schools. It's safe to say, without even looking at your stats (though to be clear, I did read through everything), that almost all will be reach-y, or at the very least high-matchy.

You're an exceptionally strong applicant who obviously has a lot to offer any school, but it's (a) impossible to chance people at most of these places; (b) particularly difficult to chance someone in your situation. We simply can't know, any more than you can, how admissions officers will feel about your illness-related weaknesses. One hopes that they'll all be understanding, but if you're counting on "okay" teacher recs to pump up your personal qualities, that could hurt you. If I were an adcom, I'd probably be hoping for a rec that said "The kid got dealt a bad hand, but came back SO strong and SO motivated..." etc. versus, y'know, "He wasn't in class much because of illness, but when he was here, he did fine." Then again, maybe the recs will be stronger than you hope, or maybe it'll be a non-issue...it's just not something that's predictable.

I do hope that that's not actually your final list, because it's devoid of a single safety. If you don't want to go to Kentucky, then that's fine...don't apply there. But there are still a lot of great "safety" schools that would be glad to have you, and would likely even offer you merit money. Right now, odds are very good that you'll get into multiple schools on your list, but it's also conceivable, in a very-worst-case-but-nonetheless-possible scenario, that you wouldn't get into any. Why even risk it?

Last piece of advice: be careful with your attitude. You're right to wonder how you can make note of your circumstances without sounding whiney...make sure that you accomplish this in any remaining apps!!! Right now (and I know that this is only an internet forum, so I hope you take this in the casual, suggestive spirit in which it's intended), between your comments about being ill, being stuck on JV soccer, having no chance at Princeton, etc., you come off as rather bitter. You obviously have had some bad luck, and it's very important to make note of this on your apps. I'm not trying to say "suck it up," but I do recommend that you adopt more of a "crap happens," as opposed to a "crap happens to me" approach.

If you're still looking for better safeties/matches, people might be able to make suggestions if you say something about what you're looking for in schools. Right now, it's difficult to glean much from your list, which kind of just looks like a semi-random collection of "good schools" (no question there).

Just to reiterate, you really are a strong candidate and I'm sure that this process will go well for you. Good luck :)

STUDENT615 Well said! That is one of the most measured insightful responses I've read on a chances thread.

I too have gone though some difficult times, but since my teachers touch on that. I don't mention it at all. I figured since my stats are good, my not mentioning some of those difficulties (Only because my recs enumerate extensively about them) gives a bigger impact.

More like she went through all of that, but she still triumphed and didn't make it into a hinderance. When someone else can attest to your perserverance, I believe it is better received.

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